“A powerful, exciting and much-needed salvo in one of the most urgent battles against bigotry.” – Sandy Stone

The emergence of trans-exclusionary movements raises many questions for feminism and transgender studies.  Challenging the framing of ‘transgender activists versus feminists’, TERF Wars: Feminism and the fight for transgender futures engages with both historical and contemporary hostility within and across trans/feminist movements. It examines the politics of trans, feminist, and trans-exclusionary movements, and imagines a future of collaboration, rather than conflict.

TERF Wars includes essays on topics including sex, gender ideology, education, community mobilisation, autogynephilia, ‘rapid-onset’ gender dysphoria, detransition, migration, sex work, and public toilets.

The authors examine questions of solidarity and difference from European, African, North and South American perspectives, emphasising the intertwined politics of gender, sexuality, disability, and race that shape our lives. Together they rigorously unpack topics that have been subject to popular misinformation and moral panic, to inform lines of feminist inquiry that are emancipatory for all.

TERF Wars is edited by Ben Vincent, Sonja Erikainen and myself. It features contributions from Jay Bernard, Lua da Mota Stabile, Jen Slater, Charlotte Jones, B Camminga, Rowan Hildebrand-Chupp, Florence Ashley, Julia Serano, María Victoria Carrera-Fernández, Renée DePalma, Emi Koyama, Cristan Williams, and Sally Hines.

TERF Wars is available as a special issue of academic journal The Sociological Review, and from £10 as a print paperback book, published by SAGE. Links to free digital versions of the chapters can also be found below.

TERF Wars digital special issue:

Available here with a subscription to The Sociological Review

TERF Wars paperback :

TERF Wars: buy from The Bookish Type
(UK delivery)

TERF Wars: buy from the Sociological Review
(International delivery)

TERF Wars: buy from Foyles
(International delivery)

TERF Wars: borrow from the Gender Community Lending Library
(UK lending)

 

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Contents

TERF wars: An introduction
by Ruth Pearce, Sonja Erikainen and Ben Vincent
[read for free]

Sex wars and (trans) gender panics: Identity and body politics in contemporary UK feminism
by Sally Hines
[read for free]

The ontological woman: A history of deauthentication, dehumanization, and violence
by Cristan Williams
[published version] [free version]

Whose feminism is it anyway? The unspoken racism of the trans inclusion debate
by Emi Koyama
[published version] [original free version]

Feminism will be trans-inclusive or it will not be: Why do two cis-hetero woman educators support transfeminism?
by María Victoria Carrera-Fernández and Renée DePalma
[published version] [free version]

Autogynephilia: A scientific review, feminist analysis, and alternative ‘embodiment fantasies’ model
by Julia Serano
[published version] [free version]

A critical commentary on ‘rapid-onset gender dysphoria’
by Florence Ashley
[published version] [free version] [commentary]

More than ‘canaries in the gender coal mine’: A transfeminist approach to research on detransition
by Rowan Hildebrand-Chupp
[published version] [free version]

Disregard and danger: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the voices of trans (and cis) African feminists
by B Camminga
[published version] [free version]

The toilet debate: Stalling trans possibilities and defending ‘women’s protected spaces’
by Charlotte Jones and Jen Slater
[read for free]

Sex work abolitionism and hegemonic feminisms: Implications for gender-diverse sex workers and migrants from Brazil
by Lua da Mota Stabile
[published version] [free version]

The transfeminist and the liberal institution: A love story
by Jay Bernard
[published version] [free version]

Afterword: TERF wars in the time of COVID-19
by Ruth Pearce, Sonja Erikainen and Ben Vincent
[Read for free]